Ventilation and air heating treatment installation in a building comprising several housing units

ABSTRACT

An installation for ventilation and heat treatment of air in a building including housing units having living and functional quarters is provided, the installation including an air blowing unit for blowing air taken from outside the building into the living quarters, an extraction unit for extracting air from the functional quarters, ducts communal to the building for conveying air to and extracting air from each housing unit, a blowing duct connected to each housing unit for conveying the blowing air, an extraction duct connected to each housing unit for conveying the extracting air, and an individual thermodynanic unit disposed on the housing unit at the connection of the blowing and extraction, where the blowing air and the extracting air passes over the thermodynamic unit, the thermodynamic unit including an evaporator disposed proximate the blowing flow and a condenser disposed proximate the extracting flow.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The subject of the present invention is an installation for ventilationin a building comprising several housing units. The term housing unit isto be understood in the broadest sense, and can refer just as easily tohousing units for dwelling as to other premises, for example those foruse as offices.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

To carry out air quality treatment, the most conventional solutionconsists in using single-flow controlled mechanical ventilation. Aventilation unit placed, for example, on the roof of the building,extracts air from the functional quarters, such as kitchens andbathrooms, of the various housing units, while the air is admitted tothe living quarters of the various housing units via air inlets placed,for example, in the door or window frames. These air inlets may giverise to acoustic disturbances because they allow noise from the outsideto pass and may lead to thermal discomfort in winter, in that they letcold air in. As there is no possibility of recuperating energy on therenewal of air, the ventilation is therefore a significant source ofheat loss.

Another known solution relates to double-flow ventilating systems. Inthis case, there is a ventilation unit blowing air taken from outsidethe building into the living quarters (drawing rooms, bedrooms, etc.) ofthe various housing units, and a ventilation unit, having the samecharacteristics as the blowing unit, extracting the air from thefunctional quarters (kitchens, bathrooms, etc.) of the various housingunits. Individual static air-air exchangers may be arranged at eachhousing unit or at the ventilation units to preheat the blown-in airusing the extracted air. The thermal balance is therefore better thanthat of a single flow installation because energy is recuperated fromthe extracted air. Furthermore, the problems of acoustic disturbance areeliminated because there are no air inlets placing each room of theliving quarters in communication with the outside.

Increasingly, the problem of year-round heat treatment of the air alsoarises.

A first solution consists in individual air conditioning systems eachcomprising an external unit and an internal unit operating withrecirculation. Such a system, which is completely independent of theventilation, is very demanding from the point of view of installing it,because it is necessary to provide an external unit and a refrigerantfluid network. Aside from the high cost of production, such aninstallation may also cause acoustic disturbances with a unit on theoutside and a blower on the inside of the housing unit, and for the samereasons may prove to be visually unattractive.

Another solution consists in providing a communal external unitconnected either to a communal cold battery placed on the blowingnetwork or to individual units placed in the housing units and operatingwith recirculation. This solution, aside from its lack of flexibility,is not used nowadays in housing units intended for dwellings because itposes problems regarding regulations, the metering of energy perapartment, and losses in the pipes.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The invention provides an installation for ventilation and heattreatment of air in a building comprising several housing units, whichis of simple and modifiable structure.

To this end, the installation to which the invention relates, of thetype comprising a double flow ventilation system with a ventilation unitblowing air taken from outside the building into the living quarters:drawing rooms, bedrooms, etc. of the various housing units, and aventilation unit, having the same characteristics as the blowing unit,performing air extraction from the functional quarters: kitchens,bathrooms, etc. of the air blown into the functional quarters, the airbeing conveyed to and extracted from each housing unit via ductscommunal to the building, is characterized in that it comprises, at theconnection of each housing unit to a pair of ducts, these being,respectively, a blowing duct and an extraction duct, an individualthermodynamic unit dedicated to the housing unit in question and overwhich the ventilation airflow passes, the evaporator and the condenserof this unit being arranged one on the blowing flow and one on theextraction flow, respectively.

Advantageously, the thermodynamic unit is housed in a casing comprisingat least two compartments each equipped with an air inlet and with anair outlet and respectively containing the evaporator and the condenserof the thermodynamic unit.

According to one implementation of this installation, the evaporator ofthe thermodynamic unit is arranged on the flow of air blown into thehousing unit, and the condenser is arranged on the flow of air extractedfrom the housing unit.

The installation according to the invention therefore comprises communalventilation units and individual thermodynamic subassemblies and pipeswithout blowers. The individual thermodynamic subassemblies areinstalled on the communal air loop, which provides communal double flowcontrolled mechanical ventilation for the building.

The installation according to the invention therefore makes it possibleto manage overall air quality in each housing unit by providing theregulation air renewal flow rates and filtering the blown-in air. Inaddition to this air quality management, the installation allowspersonalized heat treatment by producing cold during the summer months,using the air conveyed by the communal ventilation. The air blown in iscooled by passing over the evaporator of the thermodynamic unit, and theheat energy is removed by the air extracted from the controlledmechanical ventilation. To improve the performance of the thermodynamicsystem, this installation comprises a bypass pipe between thecompartments containing the evaporator and the condenser, allowing anadditional flow of air that does not pass through the housing unit topass over the condenser. That allows an increase in the thermodynamicpower without adversely affecting the thermal balance of the housingunit in question.

In order not to disrupt the equilibrium of the ventilation column,mounted on the bypass pipe is a airflow passing over the evaporator, andwhich is moved into its closed position upon the switch to the positionof maximum extraction flow rate from the kitchen.

According to an advantageous implementation of this installation, duringthe winter months, the condenser of the thermodynamic unit is arrangedin the flow of air blown into the housing unit, and the evaporator isarranged in the flow of air extracted from the housing unit. Thethermodynamic system recuperates the energy from the extracted air anduses it to heat the blown-in air. The damper on the bypass pipe is thenin the closed position.

The bypass pipe may also contain a flow regulating module placedupstream or downstream of the damper. This module is intended forequalizing the flow rate in the various apartments when there is a highnumber of these.

Advantageously, the thermodynamic unit is of the reversible type, withthe possibility of reversing the direction of refrigerant and ofswapping the functions of the evaporator and of the condenser. Thisarrangement makes it possible, without modifying the path of thecirculated air at the thermodynamic unit, to use the unit to preheat theair in the winter and to cool the air in the summer.

According to another feature of the invention, the thermodynamic unit isconnected to an operating keypad and controlled by a thermostat arrangedin the housing unit.

In the absence of another heating system, an optional additional heatingdevice may be installed on the blowing side. For this, the vent openingsfor blowing air into the various rooms of the living quarters areequipped with an additional device for electrically heating the blown-inair, which can be operated by a temperature probe also connected to thethermodynamic unit. Depending on the requirements of the housing unit,this device may operate either only with the fresh air flow rate or withan additional air flow rate recirculated at the blowing vent aperture ifthe required power is too high.

Each room is therefore individually regulated at each blowing terminal.As this room-by-room regulation is connected to the thermodynamic systemby the electronic management system, the overall settings can beoptimized while at the same time avoiding the problems of conflictingoperation between the thermodynamic system and the additional electricheating resistive elements.

The following various advantages relating to such an installation may benoted.

Air quality is guaranteed by the controlled mechanical ventilationsystem, with flow rates that meet the regulations and the possibility offiltering the blown-in air.

From the thermal point of view, comfort is obtained in the summer bycooling the air, by recuperation of energy from the extracted air, andin the winter by preheating the blown-in air, which leads to a saving onheating consumption. This involves individual regulation at eachthermodynamic unit, with consumption metered individually and withoutneedless thermal losses in the pipes passing through the communal partsof the building.

As far as the design of the installation is concerned, it should benoted that it is not absolutely essential for all the housing units tobe equipped with a thermodynamic unit, it being possible for certainhousing units to be equipped with such a unit and for other housingunits to be equipped with a static exchanger, with the possibility, whendesired, of replacing the static exchanger with a thermodynamicexchanger, in order to spread the investment cost,

As far as operation is concerned, it must be kept in mind that eachthermodynamic module is autonomous, requires no installation of a fluidnetwork, has no unit external to the building, as is the case with knownair conditioning devices, and has no internal blower, as is the casewith known ventilation devices, because the airflow rate is guaranteedby the communal controlled mechanical ventilation system of thebuilding.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

In any event, the invention will be clearly understood with the aid ofthe description which follows with reference to the appendeddiagrammatic drawing, which, by the way of non-limiting example,represents one form of embodiment of this installation:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are two diagrammatic views of an installation in winteroperation and summer operation, respectively;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are two views of a thermodynamic module with which ahousing unit is equipped, in the winter position and in the summerposition, respectively;

FIG. 5 is a view of a casing containing a thermodynamic module;

FIG. 6 is a very diagrammatic view of one method of regulating athermodynamic module.

FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a building comprising two housing units 2 and 3. Inthe upper part of the building are arranged an air blowing unit 4 and anair extraction unit 5 engineered to suit the configurations of thenetwork. The air blowing unit 4 sends air via a column 6 to the varioushousing units, while air is extracted from these via the unit 5 via acolumn 7. The blowing of air and the extraction at each housing unit iscarried out by a casing containing a thermodynamic unit 8. Thethermodynamic unit denoted by the general reference 8 comprises a casingdivided into two compartments by a central partition 9, each compartmentcomprising an air inlet orifice and an air outlet orifice.

In FIG. 5, the fresh-air inlet orifice is denoted by the generalreference 10, the fresh-air outlet orifice to the housing unit by thereference 12, the orifice for taking air back from the housing unit bythe reference 13, and the orifice for discharging air to the outside bythe reference 14. The thermodynamic unit comprises, in a way known perse, a compressor 15 and an evaporator 16 and a condenser 17, theevaporator 16 and the condenser 17 being housed in two separatecompartments. It should be noted that arranged on the refrigerantcircuit is a four-way valve 18, which allows the direction of flow ofthe fluid to be reversed. It is thus possible to swap the functionsperformed by the evaporator and the condenser, the evaporator becoming acondenser and vice versa, depending on the direction in which the fluidflows.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, there is a bypass pipe between the twocompartments of the casing containing the thermodynamic unit, thisbypass pipe being equipped with a damper 19 allowing it to be closed.During the winter months, in order to preheat the air, with the damper19 in the closed position, the four-way valve 18 mounted on therefrigerant circuit is switched in such a way that the element situatedin the compartment for blowing air in toward the housing unit is thecondenser, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.

By contrast, in the summer months, the valve 18 is switched so that theelement forming the evaporator is in the air blowing part of the casingand the element forming the condenser is in the extraction part of thecasing. The damper 19 is then in the open position as shown in FIG. 4 toallow some of the air, with a certain flow rate, to pass directly overthe condenser in order to improve the performance of the thermodynamicunit.

It is possible to combine with the damper 19 a flow regulating module 21which is intended to even out the flow rate in the various apartmentswhen there is a high number of these.

FIG. 6 very diagrammatically depicts the regulation and control of athermodynamic unit. This figure depicts an air blowing vent aperture 20which is equipped with a heating module, for example an electric heatingmodule. An extraction vent in the kitchen is denoted by the reference22. This figure also depicts a switch 23 for switching the flow rate inthe kitchen from a normal ventilation value to a higher ventilationvalue, for example to allow a switch from 45 to 135 m³ of air extractedper hour. There is also a temperature probe 24 per main room comprisinga vent 20 and a master operating keypad with an internal temperatureprobe 25. It is possible to set the mode of operation of thethermodynamic unit to cooling or heating using the operating keypad.Furthermore, the associated temperature probe allows the operation ofthe thermodynamic unit to be switched on and off. The switch 23 makes itpossible, when the unit is being used to cool the air, to close thedamper 19 when the value of the flow rate extracted from the kitchen isincreased, in order not to unbalance the ventilation column.

The temperature probe 24 connected to the thermodynamic module placed ina main room of the living quarters equipped with a vent with anadditional heating system makes it possible to optimize regulation andto avoid problems of conflicting operation between the thermodynamicunit and the additional heating system.

As goes without saying, the invention is not restricted to the soleembodiment of this installation which has been described hereinabove byway of example; on the contrary, it encompasses all alternative formsthereof. Thus, in particular, one and the same housing unit may beequipped, depending on its size, with several thermodynamic units or,alternatively, the vents for distributing fresh air to the livingquarters could have no additional heating system, without this in anyway departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An installation for ventilation and heattreatment of air in a building including housing units having living andfunctional quarters, comprising: an air blowing unit for blowing airtaken from outside the building into the living quarters; an extractionunit for extracting air from the functional quarters; ducts communal tothe building for conveying air to and extracting air from each housingunit; a blowing duct connected to each housing unit for conveying theblown air; an extraction duct connected to each housing unit forconveying the extracted air; and an individual thermodynanic unitdisposed on the housing unit at the connection of the blowing andextraction ducts; wherein the blown air and the extracted air pass overthe thermodynamic unit, the thermodynamic unit including an evaporatordisposed proximate the blown air flow and a condenser disposed proximatethe extracted air flow.
 2. The ventilation installation as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the thermodynamic unit is housed in a casing comprisingat least two compartments each equipped with an air inlet and an airoutlet, the air inlet containing the evaporator and the air outletcontaining the condenser.
 3. The ventilation installation as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the evaporator is arranged on the flow of air blowninto the housing unit, and the condenser is arranged on the flow of airextracted from the housing unit.
 4. The ventilation installation asclaimed in claim 3, further comprising a bypass pipe between thecompartments containing the evaporator and the condenser and allowing anadditional flow of air that does not pass through the housing unit topass over the condenser.
 5. The ventilation installation as claimed inclaim 4, wherein, mounted on the bypass pipe, is a damper which isplaced in an open position when the thermodynamic unit is in operationwith the blown air passing over the evaporator, and which is moved intoa closed position upon a switch to a position of maximum extraction flowrate from the functional quarter.
 6. The installation as claimed ineither of claim 4, wherein the bypass pipe is equipped with a flowregulating module.
 7. The ventilation installation as claimed in claim1, wherein the condenser is arranged in the flow of air blown into thehousing unit, and the evaporator is arranged in the flow of airextracted from the housing unit.
 8. The ventilation installation asclaimed in claim 3, wherein the thermodynamic unit is reversible,reversing a direction of a refrigerant and of swapping functions of theevaporator and of the condenser.
 9. The ventilation installation asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the thermodynamic unit is connected to anoperating keypad and controlled by a thermostat arranged in the housingunit.
 10. The ventilation installation as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising vent openings for blowing air into various rooms of theliving quarters, the vent openings being equipped with an additionaldevice for electrically heating the blown-in air which can be operatedby a temperature probe also connected to the thermodynamic unit.